HCM City’s businesses invest 68 trillion VND in Central Highlands

A farmer harvests coffee beans in Dak Lak province (Source:VNA)

The investment cooperation between HCM City and five provinces in the Central Highlands – Dak Lak, Gia Lai, Kon Tum, Dak Nong, and Lam Dong – has involved a number of fields, including agro-forestry, ecological tourism, mining, and hydropower.

The investment from the city has helped drive socio-economic development in the region, making a great contribution to the State budget and creating thousands of jobs for local workers.

The committee, however, said the cooperation faced limitations, mostly due to the lack of information and a clear development strategy.

In order to boost the effectiveness of socio-economic cooperation programmes, the committee asked the five provinces to build detailed plans to attract more investment, especially in agro-forestry processing and commodity consumption.

Last year, the Central Highlands recorded a population of 5.5 million, 36.85 percent of which were from 53 ethnic minority groups.

The region achieved a GDP growth of 7.06 percent or nearly 140 trillion VND (6.16 billion USD) in the year.

It also attracted 131 investment project totaling 19.3 trillion VND (849.2 million USD, including 13 foreign-invested ones.-VNA